The other day I came across a well loved quote from Roald Dahl, “A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a doublechin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” (from ‘The Twits’). This seems to be true in a sort of way. Certainly in a personal way, in that, even if you don’t actually see a beautiful visage when you look in the mirror, if you are thinking good and kind thoughts, you will feel lovely. Recently scientists have claimed that the benefits of being kind and helpful (& generous, I suppose) have a positive effect on your level of happiness.It is recommended that you avoid ‘looking back’ on unhappy experiences and to, instead, ‘flood our brains’ with positive memories and experiences. Apparently, even just thinking about kindness raises your happiness levels – altruism in all you do is the way to go! A letter writer in one of Australia’s newspapers asked recently if Australiacould possibly move from the business community’s yardstick of ‘gross domestic product’ to ‘gross domestic happiness’.Now, that’s what I call a good idea!